Who: .........all of us !
What: ........Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Meeting
Where: ......700 H St., Sacramento, CA 95814
When: .......June 15th, 2010, 1:00pm
Why: .........Our returning Veterans NEED us !!!
The Human Services Coordinating Council is another chance to speak for the Mentally Ill, Homeless, Older Adults and Veterans. My first day as a new member was absolutely beautiful ! The Chair of the Mental Health Board wasn't there so I did a good job of winging an update.
I mentioned that we had re-affirmed our relationship with the Older Adults Subcommittee and that I had invited Chief Deputy RC Smith to be a guest speaker after he graciously sought me out to explain his function on the Mental Health Services Act Steering Committee, that being to function as a conduit to all law enforcement county-wide re: training, the mentally ill, and the MHSA --- the result was a wonderful extended presentation and a commitment from the Sheriff's Office to have a representative of the Chief Deputy attend the Mental Health Board meetings on a regular basis -- my hope in this effort is and was that we reduce the incidence of danger when law enforcement and mentally ill encounter each other.
I was touching on Sr. Libby's concern about low income housing during discussion of the General Plan and mentioned the needs of Older Adults particularly and, after Bruce Wagstaff gave an enthusiastic "good news!" report on the latest budget likelihood by department -- skipping some -- I immediately asked about the Sacramento County Veteran's Service Office which was one of those skipped.
Bruce Wagstaff said it was a good question and said he was happy that two of the four positions were not slated for deletion now. I gave an informational summation of the VSO as our veteran's first line of defense on returning home from the war zones; how we're sending healthy kids over to fight and that they're coming back with "jellied brains" (my colloquial, sorry) as well as PTSD now.
New technology protects them better from physical wounds but an IED going off under a vehicle gives the brain a shock I often describe as like "shaken baby syndrome" for an adult.
The term for the new epidemic is called Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI.
Along with the ultra high incidence of TBI & PTSD, further aggrivated by repeated tours without recovery time, I've heard of elevated rates of units discharging service men and women under less than honorable conditions because of "personality disorders" -- an easy fix for a frustrating irritant instead of trying to help one of our wounded recover from it. We've got to help these young people straighten out their lives.
Remember: We sent them over as healthy young kids -- to fight for us !
The Tsunami of veterans returning home with their brains, personalities and emotions -- in fact, their lives -- all scrambled up isn't going to be easy to deal with; ...but deal with it we must; out of compassion for the returning injured warrior and to lessen the inevitable high cost that will be inflicted on communities by jail, prison, and emergency room visits -- not to mention the shattered families and abused or neglected, in fact, twisted and confused children that will precipitate from the lack of solution as untreated Vets turn to drugs and alcohol to self medicate. ...that abandonment might as well read: "Cost!, Cost!, Cost!"
The Veteran's Service Office is the first place our military tells service men and women to go after discharge to file their DD-214 with the County Clerk for free at the place of discharge and to receive help filing for disability benefits. At a VSO the veteran will receive professional case management as opposed to volunteers of service organizations helping with severely limited ability and office hours -- totally inadequate for the job if we're to help our veterans and our communities be healthier.
Later that evening I took the opportunity to make a very similar case and a mention of Safe Ground to the Sacramento City Council and Mayor Kevin Johnson.
June 15th at 1:00 PM we need you to help save our VSO as the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be deciding on the segment of the budget funding the VSO. Today we stand to lose two positions out of five at our VSO in Sacramento County.
That's down from losing four -- an 80% cut that was proposed -- reduced to 40% -- still too high.
That's *IF* the budget recommendations are accepted by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
- There *ARE* no guarantees we can afford to bank on.
- Our Veterans and our community need your help.
- Some can't ask for the help -- and some won't even come home.
- We can't afford *NOT* to help. ...support your County VSO
.
Who: .........all of us !
What: ........Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Meeting
Where: ......700 H St., Sacramento, CA 95814
When: .......June 15th, 2010, 1:00pm
Why: .........Our returning Veterans NEED us !!!
Godspeed everyone,
Let's Get Out There !!!
-frank
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